British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
