British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line 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 truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
