British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
