BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
