BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
