BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
