British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with 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 follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
