British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
