BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
