British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."
