British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
