BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring 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 earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
