British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
