British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
