BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
