BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
