BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, 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 its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
