British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
