British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
