BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention 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 the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, 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 complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
