British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
