BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
