BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's report declared: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling 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 corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
