British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme 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 accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
