British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent held a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
