BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
