British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
