BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
