BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
