British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."