British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
