BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
