BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
