BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
