BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."