British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
