BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."