BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
