BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."
