British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's report said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
