British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
