BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."