British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
