British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
