British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"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 timing and wording are confirmed."