BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
