British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
