British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
