British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."
