BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."