British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."
