BBC Gaza Film Ruled 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 narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
