British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that audiences would have invested 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The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
