BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
