British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
