British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."