British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 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 adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
