British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
