BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
