British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
