BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."
