British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
