British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
