BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
