BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
