BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
