British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
