British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
