British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
