BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
