British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled 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 significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised 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."
