BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
