BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
