British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
