BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."
