BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine 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 BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
