British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
