BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
