British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of trust 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 last February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
