BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined 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 factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to undermine the significantly high degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."