BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
