BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
