British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
