British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
