British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
