BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
