BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 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 sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
