British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
