BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's statement stated: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
