British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."
