British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
