British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
