British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details 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 public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
