British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
