British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
