BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."
