BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
