British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
