British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
