British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."