BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
