British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
