British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines 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 authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
