BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high amounts of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."
