British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into 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 ordered the corporation to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
