British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "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 broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
