British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
