BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's announcement said: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
