British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
