British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects clause 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 follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
