British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
