British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film 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 its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
