British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
