British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
