BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
