BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom 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 significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
