BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster 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 offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line 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 accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."