British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
