BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
