British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
