British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."