British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
