British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
