British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
