British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
