BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
