British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
