British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
