BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
