BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
