British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
