BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
