BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
