BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
