British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
