British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."