BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions 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 corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
