BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
