BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
