BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
