BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
