BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."