British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
