British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
