British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
