British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
