British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
