BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results 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 aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
