British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded 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 instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
