BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom 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, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
