BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
