BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
