BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
