British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
