British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found 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".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
