British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
