BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
