British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
