British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
