British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
