BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
