British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined 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 truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
