British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."