British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
