British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."