British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
