BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC 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The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line 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 truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
