BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."