BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
