British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
