BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
