British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines 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 its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
