British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
