BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
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 BBC to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
