BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report said: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
