BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's report said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
