British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
