British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States 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 child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."
