BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
