BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
