BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
