British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."
