British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
