BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
