British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
