BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
