BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The authority's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
