British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
