British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
