British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
