BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report said: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, 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 comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
