British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
