BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions 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 regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
