British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
