BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
