BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
