British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
