British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
