BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
