BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
