British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
