British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
