British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
