British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"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.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
