BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report said: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
