British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
