British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
