BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
