British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
