British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
