British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
