British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
