British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
