BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
