British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The authority's statement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
