British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
