British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."