British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
