British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
