BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."