British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded 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".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
