British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
