BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
