British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
