BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
