BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
