British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
