BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
