BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
