BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."