British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
