BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the significantly high degrees of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
