British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
