BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
