BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
