BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, 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 programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
