British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe 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 authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision 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 truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
