British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
