British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection 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 exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
