BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."