BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings 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 aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
