BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
