British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
