British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
