British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
