BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
