British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
