BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."