British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
