British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
