British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
