British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
