BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, 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 full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
