British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom 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 earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
