British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
