BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
