British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."