BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings 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 corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
