British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
