British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
