British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
