British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
