BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
