British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
