BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
