BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
