British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
