British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects 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 sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
