BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions 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 corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
