BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
