BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."
