BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied 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 heart of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
