British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
