British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement 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 date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The regulator's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
