BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
