British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 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 comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
