British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
