British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered 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 details he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
