BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
