BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
