BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."