British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
