British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
