British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
