BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are finalised."