BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
