British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
