British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results 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 aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
