BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised 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."
