BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
