British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The authority's report said: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
