British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
