BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster 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, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line 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 factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
