BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling 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 accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
