British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's report said: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
