BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."