British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
