British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
