BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings 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 clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."