BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
