BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The authority's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."
