British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
