BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
