BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
