BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
