BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
