BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
