British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
