British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."