British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."