BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
