British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
