British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report said: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"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 provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
