BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
