BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report said: "Our probe concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation 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 state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
