BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."
