British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
