British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
