BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
