British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 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 follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
