BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
