BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
