British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation 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 earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
