BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."