BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
