BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
