BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance 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 regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
