British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
