BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."
