British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
