BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
