British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."