British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
