BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
