British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
