BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report said: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
