BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."
