British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
