BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
