BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
