British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
