BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
