BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by 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 chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
