BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
