BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator 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 major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's report said: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
