British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
