British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."