British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."