BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions 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 Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
