British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high degrees of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."