BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
