BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results 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 aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."
