British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
