British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
