BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme 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 concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
