British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
