British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
