BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
