BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance 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 accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
