British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."