British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
