British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."
