British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered 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 details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
