BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority 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 chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the significantly high amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
