BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
