British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 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 timing and wording are confirmed."
