British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son 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 concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
