British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination 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 factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
