BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
