British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."
