BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
