BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."