BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
