BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
