BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
