BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film 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 instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
