British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
