BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
