British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
