British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The regulator's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
