British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."
