BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
