BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
