British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
