British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
