British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
