British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent held a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
