British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
