BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
