British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's statement said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement 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 factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
