British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
