British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report said: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 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 timing and language are confirmed."
