British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
