British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
