British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
