BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are finalised."
