BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
