British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
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 serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
