BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."
