BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
