BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority 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 chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."
