British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
