British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
