British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
