BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
