BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
