BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza 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 serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance 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 accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."