British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
