BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
