British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."
