BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."
