BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
