BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
