BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details 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 British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
