BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently 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.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
