BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
