BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
