British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
