BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child 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 programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
