BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
