BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
