BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."