BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
