BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
