BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
