British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
