BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 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 follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
