British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
