British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
