British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision 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 truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
