British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
