British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
