BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
