British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
