BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line 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 aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
