BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
