BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
