British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
