BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, 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 the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
