BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
