British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error 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 expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
