BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
