British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
