British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently 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.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
