British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
