British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
