British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
