British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
