British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
