An Ofcom investigation has found that the BBC documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone broke broadcasting rules which state that factual programmes must not materially mislead the audience.
Ofcom received 20 complaints which had completed the “BBC First” process. Our investigation also considered the findings from the BBC’s own internal review, which concluded that the programme had breached its Editorial Guidelines on accuracy.
The Ofcom investigation found that the programme’s failure to disclose that the narrator’s father held a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading. It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
In a statement, Ofcome said: “Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC. This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war.
“As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed.”
Pippa Considine
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