BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
