British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's report declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
