BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
