BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The authority's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
