BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."