British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
