British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
