British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
