BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film 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 comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
