BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."
