BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
