BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC 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The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
