British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination 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 truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."