British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
