British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in last February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's content policies 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 significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
