British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
