BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
