BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
