BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
