British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation 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 already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
