BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."