BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
