BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
