British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
