BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
