BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
