BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
