British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."
