British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
