British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
