BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high degrees of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."