British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 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 follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
