BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance 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 aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."
