British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation 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 determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's report said: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
