British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
