British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 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 date and wording are confirmed."
