British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
