British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
