British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
