BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
