BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
