BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."
