British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
