British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
