BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, 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 timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line 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 truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
