BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
