British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
