British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."