BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing 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 date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report said: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
