BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing 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.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
