BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
