British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
