British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
