BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report said: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
