BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a role in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
