British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "Our probe determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
