British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's report said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
