BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
