BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's report said: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."