BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
