BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom

The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.

"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.

'Possibility to Damage Confidence'

The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.

"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."