British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
